What Is Positive Thinking And What Is Not [And Why You Need It]

Want to know what is positive thinking? Then you’re in the right place. Positive thinking is a concept that is used in personality or motivation seminars as well as in corresponding guidebook literature. Further synonyms are “new thinking,” “correct thinking,” “power thinking” or “mental positivism.” Positive thinking is not to be confused with positive psychology.

Positive thinking means seeing one’s environment and fellow human beings in a positive light. Positive thinking also means taking a positive attitude toward future events.

What Is Positive Thinking

If, on the other hand, one sees a person who has only failed in his private and professional life, it is hardly conceivable that this person can adopt the attitude of “positive thinking.” He lacks any reason to see anything from a positive perspective. He radiates the negative and thereby receives negative feedback from his fellow human beings. He is in a real vicious circle, from which it is very difficult to get out again.

Strictly speaking, one can only think positively if one can justify this thinking to oneself. The justification can be derived, for example, from professional and private successes.

But even the man plagued by failures can free himself from his vicious circle: If, for example, he becomes aware of his strengths (every person has strengths!) and builds on these strengths, he can reap his first small successes by these strengths. Now he too has the opportunity to think positively with good reason.

Let us not forget: If positive thinking is not put into our cradle, we will not be able to think positively within a few days. Only when this positive thinking is anchored in our subconscious and is constantly nourished by positive experiences, do we involuntarily think positively.

Everybody’s in a bad mood. Negative thoughts, however, have a far-reaching influence on well-being. By simple tricks in everyday life, everyone can become a more positive and balanced person.

There are times when everything is just too much. Even people and things we usually like get on our nerves. A good piece of advice, a cheerful laugh or well-intentioned advice are than even a burden. We would prefer to avoid the constantly positive.

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Human brain reacts more strongly to negative than positive effects

This is due, for example, to the fact that we have been overburdened for a long time or that the high demands of our private and professional lives are not sufficiently offset by recovery. It influences our brain because the almond kernels as stress processing sites are getting bigger and bigger and more susceptible to stress, annoyance & Co., the more often we have it.

Anyway, our brain loves problems more than positives. In the history of mankind, this served survival, so that we could concentrate on danger. This has taken on a life of its today: We no longer relativize, no longer see how much pleasant, meaningful, beautiful there is at the same time.

There are certainly quite a few who think positive thinking is hocus-pocus. But in fact, optimism has many benefits for health, social interaction and general well-being.

Pessimistic contemporaries like to justify their attitude by pointing out that they would like to see the world realistically. However, positive thinking has nothing to do with lying to oneself and has numerous advantages. When viewed with optimism, obstacles can often be overcome better, defeats overcome more easily and crises overcome with greater strength.

How positive thinking and optimism promote health

The advantages that positive thinking brings with it are first and foremost evident on the spiritual level. Although optimists fail just as often as negative thinkers, they get over it more easily and therefore do not make life so difficult for themselves. They see failures as temporary, short-term setbacks and see obstacles as challenges rather than insurmountable hurdles. This makes it easier for them to deal constructively with the adversities of life.

Positive thinking does not have to stop people from reflecting on their mistakes, i.e., from deluding themselves. Rather, they see their mistakes as an incentive to do better next time. Who fails with fun at the joy and then rises just as cheerfully again, is not frustrated so fast, puts itself less under pressure and does not get so easily under negative stress – which humans rather paralyzes than incites.

The perception of optimists is usually more alert and attentive since positive thinking also makes one curious. Those who have a benevolent attitude towards themselves are more balanced and relaxed and therefore develop better memory, are more creative and imaginative. As a result, positive thinking is also full of advantages for physical health, since a relaxed attitude counteracts stress-related illnesses.

SEE ALSO: How To Overcome Self Doubt: 15 Tips To Finally Boost Your Confidence

What positive thinking is and what it brings you

Positive thinking means seeing the famous “half-full glass” in a situation, i.e. perceiving its positive aspects rather than its negatives. It also means having the confidence to believe in successes and opportunities and to tackle things that others do not think are feasible. Almost all the great successes in history have to do with positive thinking: Someone believed in an almost unbelievable possibility and implemented it. Positive thinking has many advantages for your life:

Focusing on the good things makes you happy.

Whoever sees the bad things, the dangers and failures are soon paralyzed. Positive thinking keeps you capable of action and ensures that you can always get up and go on.

Thinking positive makes you healthier: He who believes in his healing has a much better chance of defeating even bad diseases.

Optimism is an important prerequisite for professional and personal success.

When you learn positive thinking, you learn a second important lesson: You are the master of your thoughts, you can decide for yourself up to a certain point what you think. This opens up completely new possibilities!

A positive view of yourself and your success strengthens self-confidence and self-esteem. Positive thinking makes you open for new things and helps you to broaden your horizon.

It has been found that the sensory organs of people with a positive attitude function better. Negative thinking does not only seem to lead in a figurative sense to the fact that we “close our eyes.”

What positive thinking is NOT

Many people first roll their eyes when it comes to “positive thinking”. The reason is a misconception of what it actually means. Positive thinking does not mean simply ignoring everything negative. And it doesn’t mean at all to just dance through the world animatedly, as some might imagine it. Optimism is just as realistic as pessimism: after all, there is virtually nothing that is only positive or only negative. We decide which aspects we concentrate on.

I want to thank you for taking the time to read my article about what is positive thinking . I sincerely hope its contents have been a good help to you.

Przemkas Mosky
Przemkas Mosky started Perfect 24 Hours in 2017. He is a Personal Productivity Specialist, blogger and entrepreneur. He also works as a coach assisting people to increase their motivation, social skills or leadership abilities. Read more here